The Wellesley School Committee during Special Town Meeting this fall will get a break from the usual intensity over school budgets that arises each spring but the committee could spark plenty of discussion with articles related to air conditioning funding and electric buses.
School Committee members ended their Aug. 18 meeting with a discussion about possible articles for Special Town Meeting, which is set to start on Nov. 9 at Wellesley High School (see Wellesley Media recording about 36 minutes in for Special Town Meeting warrant article segment). The deadline for warrant submissions was on Friday, Aug. 21.
The School Committee had been planning to bring a request to fund design of air conditioning systems at the town’s older schools, addressing a situation that proponents say has become a health danger in the summer (see background on air conditioning project on the School Committee website). Committee Chair Niki Ofenloch said needed funding for design work looked to be about $1.425m, with separate funding to be requested for construction a year later (funding for a feasibility study was previously secured, as Wellesley follows a feasibility-design-construction process on projects like this).
Though following discussion at the Aug. 18 meeting, including questions of the article scope raised by member Bob Sullivan, it was determined to submit a broader article about air conditioning funding. Motion language—what Town Meeting members actually vote on—will be hashed out in the weeks and months ahead. Ofenloch said this broadening of the article language makes sense given the School Committee plans to discuss air conditioning at its next meeting, and that the Permanent Building Committee is also discussing project timing.
Simultaneously a citizen petition has been filed to accelerate the project, with the goal of installing air conditioning at Bates, Fiske and Schofield Elementary Schools next summer, and getting to Wellesley Middle School after that. The current School Committee plan aims for construction in summer and fall of 2028.
Separately, the School Committee OK’d bringing a warrant article to Special Town Meeting to allow for longer contracts in special circumstances, such as those related to sustainability projects. The background here, shared by Supt. David Lussier, is that the district is heading into the final school year of its contract for big yellow bus service with Eastern Bus. There’s been an interest in electrifying school transportation, including from the town’s sustainability leaders, but one challenge is that schools are limited by town bylaw to signing contracts no longer than 5 years, and transportation companies may need longer ones to justify investments in electrifying their fleets. Lussier said Wellesley has been closely watching how peer communities, like Belmont (which signed a 10-year contract with its vendor), are handling this issue.
So the superintendent raised the notion of a Special Town Meeting placeholder article designed to allow special dispensation, if needed, to sign a longer contract to take advantage of possible EV options. Waiting until Annual Town Meeting in the spring to receive such permission would be too late, given the school district’s plan would be to start the bidding process before that.
The actual Special Town Meeting article could be designed more broadly than focusing on giving the school district more flexibility on this particular contract. It could be written to focus on contracts in general that might require longer terms to achieve sustainability goals, for example. To be clear, the article would not be about actually approving any specific contract.
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